Morning.
I wonder off.
I see a guard looking intently at a tapestry.
Three female busts watching him, him watching the visitors, the visitors watching the art.

There is a chapel. Several rows of small chairs facing the windows. One chair is standing in a diagonal.
A hint?
Lets set them into a circle. One by one. In between walking away. It feels a bit like playing Mikado. Will a guard realign them?
At the end of the morning there is a circle.

After lunch.
I count 60 steps for Irina.
For the first 15 min. I sit on the floor next to the door
cross legged
my eyes almost closed>
At one point a guard comes by telling me that I have to move
I am sitting on old stones
I move onto a bench.
I say my line out loud.
Frans breaks the stillness after 15 min.

I step next to Rafael and say my line:
‘My left eye is slightly higher then my right eye so that seen from below both eyes remain visible and appear focused on the child.’

The chapel.
The chairs are realigned in lines.
I start to build a circle with them.

I pass Irina.
I read my line to her.

The figure # 59.
I smile at it.
Ieke is there too.
We read our lines to each other.
We play with them.
Fragmented.

I ask a guard
‘what is parallel?’
‘Two lines’.
He shows me with his arms
parallel.
Another guard joins
they discuss parallel together
‘two lines that don’t meet’
I ask
‘is there parallel in here?’
A moment of silence.
‘you mean what you read in the brochure
outside
it is outside
the river, on the other side’.
‘Thank you’

I ask a guard
‘what is parallel?’
‘Two lines. Two lines that never meet.’
Showing me with his hands.
‘Is there parallel in here?’
Silence. Looking around.
‘No. No, I am sorry.’

Steef is sitting on a bench.
A guard is talking to him. Steef must have asked her something.
I sit on another bench just like him. Arm on leg. Chin rested on the other hand.
Focusing on the guard.
She becomes the performer.
She keeps talking and explaining, moving around in the big space, turning, making gestures, pointing to this, to that.
A performance.
For us.

Eventually –
‘What is parallel?’
I ask her.
‘Things that are similar. Also lines.’
‘Is there parallel in here?’
‘Yes. Over here.’
We go into the next room.
‘Here, this is parallel. All the same period. Here a lion. Here a dragon. Here a camel.’

I ask a guard
‘what is parallel?’
‘Two lines. Like railroad tracks. Not in an angle. Like railroad tracks.’
Helping with his arms to show me the tracks.
‘Is there parallel in here?’
Looking around.
‘Yes. Yes, there is.

In between visits in the chapel.
The chairs build a circle.
Nobody seems to mind.

I sit next to Ventiko.
Sitting like her.
One leg crossed over the other.
Looking out.
Silence. Stillness.

‘My left eye is slightly higher then my right eye so that seen from below both eyes remain visible and appear focused on the child.’
Not too loud. Audible to her.
She says her line.
We mix them together.
We take them apart.
We fragment them.
We play with them.
We converse with them.
We ponder them.

Before the museum closes
all the chairs are back aligned in lines.
Facing the light.